Necks level skills! Giraffes can do simple maths new study suggests

Giraffes are known for their incredibly long necks, towering height and beautiful patches - but it seems they might now have a brand-new claim to fame.

A new study has revealed that these gentle giants could also be secret maths geniuses.

Scientists have discovered that giraffes can use simple addition to work out where the biggest pile of snacks is hiding, even when they can't see the final amount.

Experts say that they think the animals could have developed these skills to help them find food and stay safe while living out in the wild.

Giraffes belong to a group of hoofed animals that also includes species such as deer, camels and hippos.

Scientists already knew that some of these animals have been shown to be good at telling the difference between bigger and smaller amounts of food, so they decided to find out if giraffes were just as clever.

Experts at the University of Barcelona in Spain set up a tasty carrot game for four giraffes living at a local zoo.

The team showed each giraffe two yellow containers which had different amounts of carrots inside.

After a few seconds, the boxes were closed so each giraffe couldn't see the food anymore.

Next, scientists showed each giraffe a green container which contained extra carrots.

They then added these extra carrots into one of the closed yellow boxes.

Once the addition was made, the animals could choose which container they preferred, without seeing the total number of carrots in each box.

The scientists found that the giraffes more often chose the container which contained the most carrots.

Researchers suggested that this showed that the giraffes were mentally adding up the carrots in each container, before making their final choice.

However, when scientists tried the experiment in reverse and took food away from each container, it was a bit too tricky for the giraffes.

Iker Loidi, who helped lead the study, explained that "subtraction is more difficult than addition" - something he said that is also true for people too.

Scientists think these clever adding up skills may help giraffes survive in the wild.

Acacia trees, which giraffes feed on, can be spread far apart across the African savanna, so being able to work out where their biggest meal is could be helpful to them.

Giraffes also live in groups that often split up and regroup, meaning they have to keep track of both their surroundings and other animals.

So next time you are doing your maths homework, just remember - somewhere out there, a giraffe might be doing some sums itself.